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Essay on Gender Roles in Macbeth

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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The play examines the corrupting power of ambition. Whose ambition functions as the driving force of the narrative , Macbeth or Lady Macbeth? Why?

How do gender expectations and perceptions intersect with violence in the play? To what extent do characters play into or fight against gender roles?

The weather is an ever-present force in Macbeth. How does the weather reflect the emotional state of the characters? Of the trajectory of the play?

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Gender Roles in Macbeth

This essay will explore the representation of gender roles in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” It will examine how characters like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the witches challenge and conform to the gender norms of the Elizabethan era. The piece will discuss the play’s exploration of themes such as power, ambition, and masculinity. It will also consider how gender dynamics contribute to the tragic downfall of the characters and the moral implications of their actions. More free essay examples are accessible at PapersOwl about Gender.

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In Macbeth, William Shakespeare comments on gender roles in the 17th century, conveying the distinct separation between male and female duties in life. Women were seen as domestic caretakers whose main role in society consisted of tending to their husbands, children, and household; while men dominated the worlds of decision making, politics, and finance (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29).

As male and female roles were so distinct in society characteristics began to become associated with them. Women were expected to be dependent, submissive, and have no opinion or ambitions, while men were expected to be ambitious, independent, and strong (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29).These gender roles and attributes largely stemmed from the idea that women were inherently evil and manipulative, leading to the view that men must take control in relationships and daily living in order to suppress women’s tendencies (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29). This view of women can be traced back to the idea that women were like Eve, manipulative and deceiving, and that if they were not controlled, they could use their femininity to manipulate males into committing atrocities (Sucese Lecture Notes 1/29). In Macbeth, Shakespeare challenges gender roles by intertwining both masculine and feminine characteristics into characters, ultimately conveying that is not gender, but the nature of the person that determines how they act.

Perhaps the most prominent portrayal of intertwined gender roles in Macbeth is the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious, strong, and violent woman; characteristics that were largely thought of as masculine in the 17th century. Although she has characteristics that equal that of males, Lady Macbeth is unable to pursue her ambitions because of the social constraints on women during that time. As she is unable to pursue things herself, she instead channels her energy into manipulating her husband to do what she would do had she been born male. In fact, Lady Macbeth states “…come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth.1.5.17), this conveys her desires to be male so she could follow her ambitions. In order to do this, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband into thinking that her ambitions are also his, leading him to murder King Duncan so that he can gain power (Macbeth.1.7.23). Even after the murder of King Duncan it is Lady Macbeth that is the source of reassurance and strength for her husband. While her husband becomes weak and emotionally frail, Lady Macbeth continues to convey her strength and mental stability conveying that she believes her husband is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” (Macbeth.1.5.16), essentially saying that he is too weak to behave as a male should. However, Lady Macbeth’s stability and strength lasts only for a short time, and eventually she becomes consumed with guilt as she becomes increasingly sensitive (Macbeth.5.1.82.). This feminine characteristic of sensitivity eventually leads to the demise of Lady Macbeth, as she can no longer maintain the strength that she had before, ultimately leading to her suicide.

Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys the idea that just because a woman is a woman, does not mean that they do not have the ambitions and strength of a man. He completely throws away the societal view of how women should act, and brings to light how women have the same capacity as men, and that they are able to be the source of opinions and ambitions in a relationship. This is shown in act one when Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth to go through with the murder of King Duncan, saying to him, “but screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail” (Macbeth.1.7.23).Through this quote it is clear that Lady Macbeth is the source of power, ambition, and strength in her relationship with Macbeth, propelling him to do what he thinks he cannot. Shakespeare also uses this quote to show how ambitious women use their femininity to persuade their male counterparts to take various actions. Lady Macbeth also essentially ridicules Macbeth, saying that her courage is steadfast even though she is a woman, and that he needs to have the same courage because he is man. The view of a women as both feminine and masculine was abnormal in a century so tightly bound to specific gender roles and female inferiority. In Macbeth, Shakespeare essentially puts all women on the same playing field as men.

Another prominent portrayal of male attributes in females is the three witches. Throughout the play, they tap into Macbeth’s inner desire for power and give him false security in his actions. Without the witches it is unlikely that Macbeth would have gone through with the murder of King Duncan, as it was their words that placed the thought in his mind and made him think that was his destiny (Macbeth.1.3.12). The Witches are the only characters in Macbeth that not only portray masculine and feminine characteristics inwardly but have physical characteristics that make it hard to outwardly define their gender. Although the witches are sisters, they have beards that cause characters in Macbeth to become confused with the ambiguity of their gender. This shown through Banquo’s first interaction with the Witches when he says, “You should be women, / And yet your beads forbid me to interpret / That you are so” (Macbeth.1.3.8). For the most part, the Witches words and actions can be seen as traditionally female, as they use manipulation in order to meddle with the minds of various characters, but they can also be seen as male because of the strength in their words and the respect that they command. The way in which they use words brings dark, unconscious thoughts to the surface for characters, which is specifically shown through Macbeth, as they bring to light his unconscious desire for power by hailing him as king (Macbeth.1.3.9.). Once these dark thoughts take a place in the characters minds, they are not easily displaced, starting a chain reaction of events that lead to the climax of the play.

Although Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches portray women with male attributes, there are characters in Macbeth that show the opposite – men with female attributes. The best example of this in Macbeth is Macbeth. In the play, Shakespeare uses Macbeth to convey what happens to men when they take on female characteristics while also emphasizing his point that gender is not inherent to character. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth shows a lack male attributes and instead expresses himself as weak and frail; characteristics that a female is supposed to have. He shows this through his anxieties and worries about killing King Duncan, and becomes very close to not committing the murder because of it (Macbeth.1.7.22.) However, in the end his wife persuades him to, which shows a further lack of strength in masculine attributes for Macbeth as it indicates lacks of courage. This is because males are not supposed to listen to the inferior opinion of women, and conveys that Macbeth is taking on a feminine role in his relationship with his wife. While Macbeth has his own ambitions of gaining power, it is his conscious that stops him from doing everything he can to attain it. Unlike Lady Macbeth who becomes increasingly frail as the play goes on, Macbeth becomes less emotional and more in tune to the violent, ambitious part of him that represents his masculinity. Shakespeare uses Macbeth in the same way he uses Lady Macbeth, which is to convey that gender does not determine character. Macbeth may be male, but he acts like a weak and emotionally frail women who needs support and validation from a more powerful figure in her life. The fact that Macbeth needed that validation and support from a female would have been embarrassing in the 16th century, and any normal male in that time period would have been ridiculed and labeled as a shell of a man.

In contrast to Macbeth, Malcom represent the epitome of manhood in the 17th century. While Macbeth tries to gain power by deception and murder, Malcom gains power by using his intelligence and fortitude. Not only that, but Malcom’s drive to attain power comes from within him, whereas Macbeth’s ambitions are driven by his wife. Malcom’s intelligence is shown specifically in his interactions with Macduff. He uses his wit to test the loyalty of Macduff by conveying that he is a greedy and overly ambitious man that would be a worse ruler than Macbeth. When Macduff shows his grief at these statements, Malcom decides to trust him and reveal his true nature (Macbeth.4.3.75.). Through this interaction, Malcom shows how he hopes to strengthen good within the Kingdom by ruling with virtue and restraint, instead of evil and desire. Shakespeare uses Malcom to show how a proper man and ruler should act by emphasizing the clear divide between the character of Malcom and Macbeth. He also conveys that if one acts with good intentions then the end result will always be better than if they had not.

Through his use of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, The Witches, and Malcom, Shakespeare breaks down gender roles in in the 16th century while questioning the validity of them. He uses Lady Macbeth to portray how women do actually have the capability of men both professionally and mentally, but have to hide their ambitions due to social constraints. The Three Witches represent an ambiguity in gender and dark thoughts driven by the want for power. They use their words in a confusing yet reassuring manner that manipulates the characters but provides a sense of reassurance at the same time. Macbeth is used to portray that men have the capacity to be like women, while Malcolm is used as an example of how a proper man without female influence should act. Shakespeare’s use of Macbeth calls into question the unwarranted power that society gives the male gender just because they are male. Overall, Shakespeare uses various characters in Macbeth to raise questions about gender roles while conveying that the personality traits each character has is not linked to their gender, but instead to their inherent nature. 

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Gender Roles in Shakespeare's Macbeth

The delineation of gender roles in Shakespeare's Macbeth yields an array of critiques wrought with contention, most notable in the characterization of Lady Macbeth. While many critics argue that Lady Macbeth's quests for power are irrevocably masculinized, Stephanie Chamberlain claims in Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England that this power is "conditioned on maternity." She argues that Lady Macbeth uses descriptions of infanticide and nursing to undermine the patrilineal order, "momentarily empowering the achievement of an illegitimate political goal." Though perhaps not adhering to traditional gender roles in her attempts to incite Duncan's murder, Chamberlain ultimately maintains that the dominant source of Lady Macbeth's power is poignantly female. While this criticism is certainly valid, the elemental aspects of the play can better be explained by viewing Lady Macbeth's momentary ascension to power as the product of a masculine invocation. In this analytical framework, her use of violent, unnatural images such as infanticide represent, not an attempt to gain power through a "maternal agency,"3 or a traditionally female channel, but a rejection of this channel altogether. Instead, Lady Macbeth attempts to gain power by invoking masculine violence and cold, male indifference. This notion is supported by and explains the unnatural tone that punctuates scenes involving Lady Macbeth and other female characters that threaten what a patrilineal society would deem the "natural gender order." This association between women with male qualities, or women trying to gain power and status through masculine channels (instead of patrilineage) and the "unnatural" provides a basis for Shakespeare to deliver consequences in congruence with the early modern English social context during which the play was written. A violation of the "natural" order, the consequence for Lady Macbeth's invocation of the masculine to access what was traditionally only available to women through their status as mothers, is madness. For the witches, it is alienation.

Related Papers

Saman A Mohammed

William Shakespeare‟s Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, three years into the reign of James I, James VI of Scotland since 1567 before he achieved the English throne in 1603. Macbeth is Shakespeare‟s shortest tragedy yet it is one of his most influential and emotionally intense plays. Macbeth portrays “the paralyzing, almost complete destruction of human spirit” (Shanley 307). Like most of Shakespeare‟s plays, Macbeth deals with the question of kingship and portrays the “problems of legitimacy and succession” surrounding serious political power that belonged to the monarch, the court and the royal councils (Hadfield 27). Numerous historical and literary studies have been conducted about various topics in Macbeth such as human desire, cruelty, and guilt. Gender role and its relation with power also have a great significance to the interpretation of the play. Shakespeare substantially emphasizes the male-female relationship and gender dynamic and does not seem to treat gender simply as binary example of male/female. Shakespeare shows the relationship between gender and power which can be related to the patriarchal discourse of early modern England. He portrays women as major determinants in men‟s actions but “their function varies throughout the canon” and also in distinct categories of either “good or evil, victims or monsters” (Berggren 18, 11). Men are portrayed as strong willed and courageous, but female character like Lady Macbeth is also given a ruthless, power-hungry personality, which is typically, in the period, more associated with masculinity. Lady Macbeth, one of the main characters in Macbeth, is deeply ambitious and her role is essentially important to further understanding Shakespeare‟s presentation of female characters. In this paper, I will provide a brief context of Macbeth in terms of contemporary issues about sovereignty. I will closely examine the role of women in Macbeth, precisely Lady Macbeth, in Macbeth‟s downfall, particularly focusing on how and why Lady Macbeth is an unsettling and disruptive force to the order of the sovereignty. The paper will cover the contemporary issue of witchcraft, to suggest that Lady Macbeth‟s gender can be associated with supernatural subversion, as well as sexual temptation and the period‟s perspective about it. The paper discusses masculinity in relation to Lady Macbeth and the relationship between the plays actions and the natural order to suggest that natural order better reveals Lady Macbeth‟s disruption as well as the notion of monster in Macbeth. This essay will end by discussing the significance of the events that happen to both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after the murder act and a conclusion.

Alec Leibsohn

Mohammad Jashim Uddin

Feminism is the most common term nowadays as since the 19th century women have been struggling for their rights and for banishing the patriarchal dominance. Women are more united and aware to establish the equity and equality in society, but men in the name of social and religious behaviour always try to enchain women and use how they wish. For these, they change their strategies frequently. As feminism is a discourse and academic discipline, people have attempted to know why and how men have started dominating women. Consequently, reading Shakespeare is important as he creates a lot of women characters in his tragedies. And a deep reading of Shakespeare's Macbeth from a feminist perspective shows how technically Shakespeare introduces Lady Macbeth as a criminal and the so-called fourth witch. Even nowhere does Shakespeare mention what Lady Macbeth's real identity is. That's why, the paper aims at reading the text from a feminist perspective to search the treatment of Shakespeare towards Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and to know why Lady Macbeth's identity is ignored here. To fulfil these, the paper briefly describes the nature of patriarchy and feminism, then the textual analysis critically with these features. Finally, it shows its findings and proves that Shakespeare is not also free from patriarchal tendency.

Vaughn Feuer

Sophia-Maria Nicolopoulos

The aim of the paper is to address instances of violence in William Shakespeare's masterpiece Macbeth (1606) and in Rupert Goold's 2010 TV adaptation, starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood. Set in an unidentified Soviet regime, the director ingeniously represents on and offstage violence by placing emphasis on gruesome details and raw animalistic instincts. Firstly, I will shortly elaborate on the nature of violence in Elizabethan drama and then, I will extensively discuss specific instances of violence in Shakespeare's tragedy by referring to scholarly works on the topic. Finally, based on the key terms of film analysis, I will provide my own interpretation of Goold's TV film.

Ramona Rizescu

Journal of Educational and Social Research

Amir Hossain , Arburim ISENI

In this paper, our purpose is to depict the feminist message as articulated in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler by portraying Lady Macbeth and Hedda Gabler who are representatives of Elizabethan England and the 19th century Scandinavian Bourgeois society and culture respectively. Through these female protagonists, both dramatists wanted to expose their contemporary situation of the female community. Both Hedda and Lady Macbeth have raised a fiery voice or initiated a dreadful revolution against the patriarchal rule, power, and domination with a view to attaining self-pelf, self-power, and self-domination. In these two plays, both Shakespeare and Ibsen have prioritized the female identity, revolt, and dominance more than the male order and custom. This paper also aims to discuss the character of Lady Macbeth as the matriarchal influence upon the patriarchy, the ambitious crime, woman’s idea upon masculinity, Lady Macbeth’s effort to repudiate womanhood, her femininity versus her unnatural resolve, her fear and remorse, her sleep-walking; Hedda is also viewed as a maladjusted, neurotic, unfulfilled, unnatural woman, full of nervous energy and longings-gliding to irresistible selfdestruction. Here, I have tried to highlight the critical judgments of several critics based on the character-analysis of the two powerful female protagonists. Considering the femme fatale characters of Shakespeare and Ibsen, the most renowned and powerful playwrights writing in English and Norwegian language respectively, especially the powerful and domineering female protagonists cum heroines, Lady Macbeth and Hedda Gabler, this paper proposes to draw attention to the play-texts of both dramatists as the embodiment of the 21st century radical feminism as well. Keywords: "Lady Macbeth", "Hedda Gabler", Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Post-Feminism

Macbeth: New Critical Essays

Julie Barmazel Stiebritz

Published at the conference proceedings of The Kristeva 2017, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Amir M Andwari

in C. Bur & M. Humm (éd.), Caton l’Ancien et l’hellénisme. Images, traditions et réception (Collections de l’Université de Strasbourg, « Études d’archéologie et d’histoire ancienne »), Paris, De Boccard, 2021, p. 227-233.

Michel Humm

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Revision Essay Titles

For your revision you should plan an essay based around each of the following questions., remember that you can use quotes - or even entire paragraphs - in multiple questions, so be wise when you prepare. also, bear in mind that you will have an extract on the day but for revision purposes you're best to plan without one and then incorporate it where you see fit., for each essay, try to plan in the following way:, write your opening paragraph, know what each of your 2 or 3 paragraphs will be about, revise the quotes and key moments that you’ll use in them, ten key questions:, how is macbeth presented as a powerful man, how is lady macbeth presented as a powerful woman, how is ambition presented in this play, how is the supernatural presented in this play, how is guilt presented in this play, in macbeth, how does shakespeare present the idea that things are not what they seem, what role do the witches play in macbeth, how does shakespeare explore betrayal in this play, how does shakespeare present the natural order in this play, how does shakespeare present ideas of good and evil in this play, an example plan:, essay question: how is lady macbeth presented as a powerful woman, opening paragraph:, right from her first moment on-stage lady macbeth dominates the stage - she insults her husband, calls on spirits, and then suggests, plans and ensures the success of the murder. in fact, throughout almost the entire play she dominates those around her. in this respect, she is presented as being the most powerful force on-stage. by the end, however, she discovers that the only person she cannot dominate is herself and her own sense of guilt and eventually she (probably) kills herself. taken as a whole, she has to be seen as a powerful woman, though shakespeare invests so little time in the latter part of her character arc that it's impossible not to feel a little like she is quite underdeveloped., paragraph 1: lm as powerful: come you spirits / my battlements / look like th’ innocent flower / but be the serpent under it also, was she a witch & planning the murder & talking macbeth around in a1 s7, paragraph 2: lm as queen noughts had... etc. / shame itself / go at once lack of real motive for wanting to be queen & macbeth not explaining death of banquo, paragraph 3: lm's death o ut out damn spot was it suicide - sudden change of heart; her being asleep while feeling guilty; realising that they'd lost and not wanting to fall into enemy hands was she killed by seyton - some audience members would have wondered, paragraph 4: powerful women in jacobean times mention of elizabeth and bloody mary and that they both broke the traditional mould of passive women, note : there were loads of different ways i could have approached this essay and this is only one of them. you should look around and find an answer that you're confident with as this will make it much easier to learn and plan for..

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Gender in Macbeth

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

19 May 2020

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Bullet-point essay plan exploring gender, femininity and masculinity in Macbeth - raises questions and context points for the class to think about, discuss further and find quotes for.

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